Transgender student wins appeal in final week of school

The decision of a unanimous three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit keeps in place a district court's preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the Kenosha Unified School District's policy against the student, Ashton Whitaker.

Back in September, a USA district judge ruled that 17-year-old Ashton Whitaker had the right to use the boy's bathroom at his school, Tremper High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Seventh Circuit, which covers Wisconsin, Illinois, and IN, is the first federal appeals court to find conclusively that a transgender student should be treated IN accordance with their gender identity at school under both Title IX and the Constitution. To avoid punishment, Ash tried to avoid using the bathroom at school altogether. Ronald Stadler, a lawyer for the school district, didn't immediately return a message.

The district also argued they had an obligation to protect the privacy interests of their students. Whitaker filed a federal lawsuit challenging his Wisconsin school district's bathroom policy.

LGBT advocates claim that the court's decision is a stunning rebuke to recent moves by the Trump administration to rollback protections for transgender students.

"Indiana schools, and any school in the Seventh Circuit is on notice that the Seventh Circuit is not going to treat their case favorably", Kreis said. Which is to say that a federal court agreed with a lower court ruling that trans people are the ones who are hurt by "bathroom bills", and the argument that it's harmful to let trans people use the bathrooms that match their gender identity is "sheer conjecture". Nonetheless, he said he was thrilled with the decision.

Ashton Whitaker will graduate from Tremper High School in Kenosha this month, but he's been battling the school district since he was a sophomore.

The court held that Whitaker is likely to prevail on her Title IX claim that she is being "sex-stereotyped" as a girl because of her biological status as a female.

"It's nice knowing this will definitely be a beacon for other trans kids and other members of the community to look to as a source for hope", Whitaker said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

The court's ruling is considered by some legal experts to be a semi-watershed step for transgender rights, as it is expected to impact the issue in other school districts nationwide.

Williams said there is much support in federal anti-discrimination law for reading Title IX's prohibition on sex discrimination in education to include disparate treatment of a transgender student.

"I've basically stopped using the bathroom at school altogether, which makes it painful and hard to get through the school day", Whitaker (photo above, with his mother) said last summer when he first sued his school district. The U.S. Supreme Court was set to hear his case but sent it back to the lower court after President Donald Trump's administration revoked guidance from former President Barack Obama directing public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identities.

As BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner noted, the ruling also emphatically rejects the transphobic (and unfounded) concerns about "safety" and "privacy" advanced by the Kenosha Unified School District, applying, for the first time, heightened scrutiny to policies that regulate a student's access based on their gender identity.

Share

Related Articles

Clayton confirmed the news on Twitter Wednesday after The Sporting News first reported it as part of the many layoffs at ESPN. This is in reference, of course, to this incredible ESPN commercial from a few years back featuring Clayton.

Despite that, there was some hope for Hamilton that Vettel might not win the race as Kimi Raikkonen qualified first. The 2017 Formula One season moves to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the Canadian Grand Prix from June 9-11.

Otherwise we're hoping to grab some pictures of X399 boards at the show today, as those should be on display . AMD's Ryzen Threadripper/X399 platform takes I/O to a level never seen before in a consumer desktop machine.

Video of an unarmed black boy being gunned down by police just seconds after they arrived on the scene sparked national horror ... Loehmann's removal comes a year after the city settled a civil lawsuit with Rice's family for $ 6 million .

There are about 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan - a majority of them are involved in training and advising Afghan troops. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which came in the first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan .

At least 1,000 ISIS militants were killed or wounded in the offensive, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. The ministry says it had notified the U.S., Turkish and Israeli militaries beforehand of the coming strike.

The graffiti, which included the N-word, was on an outer gate of the residence, said Los Angeles police officer Aareon Jefferson. Of the incident, James said in a previous press conference via USA Today , "Racism, we know, exists".

While it was expected that the reports would from part of discussions at the NEC gathering, Mantashe said this was not the case. But the chairman of the meeting blocked the move because it was not on the official agenda, state-owned broadcaster SABC said.

On the other, there's a slightly shorter, heavier Snow White , with no makeup, slouching a little and holding the shoes. Red Shoes & the 7 Dwarfs, the newest retelling of the animated classic, is being criticized for its marketing campaign.

Oil inches up in quiet holiday trade
For Brent crude LCON7, -0.52% it cut the forecast to $55.39 a barrel, from $56.76 for 2017, and left the 2018 forecast at $58. Traders are anxious that the increasing Libyan and U.S. production will dampen the OPEC efforts to rebalance the markets.

Social media rushes to define Trump's 'covfefe' tweet
White House communications director Michael Dubke announced his resignation Tuesday, saying it had been an honor to serve Trump. Someone bought a " covfefe " license plate in California, and there are already " covfefe " shirts and hats available for sale.

Lakers Land No. 2 Pick in 2017 Draft
Ball is also confident that Lonzo will be playing for the Lakers and their playoff chances for next year. It marked the third straight year that the Lakers landed the No.2 pick in the draft.

Nothing goes right for Tsonga in French Open loss
The Spaniard lost the opening set against the 53rd-ranked Estonian Anett Kontaveit but held on to win 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2. The first-round match started Tuesday, but was suspended because of darkness with Olivo leading 5-4 in the fourth set.